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Now showing 1 - 10 of 510
  • Journal Article
    Global-Scale Patterns of Forest Fragmentation
    (2000) Riitters, Kurt; Wickham, James; O'Neill, Robert; Jones, Bruce; Smith, Elizabeth
    "We report an analysis of forest fragmentation based on 1-km resolution land-cover maps for the globe. Measurements in analysis windows from 81 km 2 (9 x 9 pixels, 'small' scale) to 59,049 km 2 (243 x 243 pixels, 'large' scale) were used to characterize the fragmentation around each forested pixel. We identified six categories of fragmentation (interior, perforated, edge, transitional, patch, and undetermined) from the amount of forest and its occurrence as adjacent forest pixels. Interior forest exists only at relatively small scales; at larger scales, forests are dominated by edge and patch conditions. At the smallest scale, there were significant differences in fragmentation among continents; within continents, there were significant differences among individual forest types. Tropical rain forest fragmentation was most severe in North America and least severe in Europe-Asia. Forest types with a high percentage of perforated conditions were mainly in North America (five types) and Europe-Asia (four types), in both temperate and subtropical regions. Transitional and patch conditions were most common in 11 forest types, of which only a few would be considered as 'naturally patchy' (e.g., dry woodland). The five forest types with the highest percentage of interior conditions were in North America; in decreasing order, they were cool rain forest, coniferous, conifer boreal, cool mixed, and cool broadleaf."
  • Journal Article
    Deforestation and Forest Cover Changes in the Himachal Himalaya, India
    (2007) Gupta, Hemant Kumar
    "The extent of forest cover resources on land surface governs many important earth system ecological processes and is the foremost requirement characterizing sustainable forest management. The extent of forest area and decline in forest resources due to deforestation and changes in forest cover have been estimated by conventional and remote sensing techniques by various agencies for India and state of Himachal Pradesh (HP) located in the Western Himalayas. The various forest cover assessments by National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) and Forest Survey of India (FSI) shows that deforestation has been halted since 1980s onwards and forest cover has been stabilized in HP. During the nine biennial forest cover assessment conducted by FSI since 1987 onwards the estimated forest and tree cover have shown an increase, until 2001 assessment and minor decline of 7 km2 during 2003 assessment in HP. The changes with in forest cover between dense forest to open forest however indicates decline in the productivity of forests. State of Forest Report (SFR) 2003 estimates 778,229 km2 (23.65%) of total geographical area of India under forest and tree cover, whereas, in HP recorded forest area constituted 66.52% of its geographical area and only 26.66% area is under forest and tree cover. National Forest Policy 1988 needs to be modified since analysis shows that in HP only 35.5% geographical area is capable of sustaining forest and tree cover against 66% envisaged by policy to be brought under forest and tree cover in mountainous and hill states of India."
  • Journal Article
    Gender and Sustainable Forest Management in East Africa and Latin America
    (2011) Mwangi, Esther; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Sun, Yan
    "This paper presents a comparative study of forest management across four countries in East Africa and Latin America: Kenya, Uganda, Bolivia, and Mexico. It focuses on one question: Do varying proportions of women (low, mixed, high) in forest user groups influence their likelihood of adopting forest resource enhancing behavior? We found that higher proportions of females in user groups, and especially user groups dominated by females, perform less well than mixed groups or male dominated ones. We suggest that these differences may be related to three factors: gender biases in technology access and dissemination, a labor constraint faced by women, and a possible limitation to women’s sanctioning authority. Mixed female and male groups offer an avenue for exploiting the strengths of women and men, while tempering their individual shortcomings."
  • Journal Article
    A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Social-Ecological Feedbacks Between Urbanization and Forest Persistence
    (2014) BenDor, Todd; Shoemaker, Douglas A.; Thill, Jean-Claude; Dorning, Monica A.; Meentemeyer, Ross K.
    "We examined how social-ecological factors in the land-change decision-making process influenced neighboring decisions and trajectories of alternative landscape ecologies. We decomposed individual landowner decisions to conserve or develop forests in the rapidly growing Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. region, exposing and quantifying the effects of forest quality, and social and cultural dynamics. We tested the hypothesis that the intrinsic value of forest resources, e.g., cultural attachment to land, influence woodland owners’ propensity to sell. Data were collected from a sample of urban, nonindustrial private forest (U-NIPF) owners using an individualized survey design that spatially matched land-owner responses to the ecological and timber values of their forest stands. Cluster analysis (n = 126) revealed four woodland owner typologies with widely ranging views on the ecosystem, cultural, and historical values of their forests. Classification tree analysis revealed woodland owners’ willingness to sell was characterized by nonlinear, interactive factors, including sense of place values regarding the retention of native vegetation, the size of forest holdings, their connectedness to nature, ‘pressure’ from surrounding development, and behavioral patterns, such as how often landowners visit their land. Several ecological values and economic factors were not found to figure in the decision to retain forests. Our study design is unique in that we address metropolitan forest persistence across urban-rural and population gradients using a unique individualized survey design that richly contextualizes survey responses. Understanding the interplay between policies and landowner behavior can also help resource managers to better manage and promote forest persistence. Given the region’s paucity of policy tools to manage the type and amount of development, the mosaic of land cover the region currently enjoys is far from stable."
  • Journal Article
    Assessing Sustainability of Logging Practices in the Congo Basin's Managed Forests: the Issue of Commercial Species Recovery
    (2006) Karsenty, Alain; Gourlet-Fleury, Sylvie
    "Traditionally, sustained yield (SY) has been viewed as a pillar of sustainable forest management (SFM), but this has been increasingly questioned. Ensuring SY of some species, i.e., a 'strong sustainability' paradigm, could be an inadequate criterion if consideration of the social and economic components of the SFM concept are desired. SFM was translated into the ATO/ITTO set of principles, criteria, and indicators (PCI) for forest management in the Congo Basin; it resulted in the necessity for a certified logging company to ensure that no significant change in structure and floristic composition would result from logging operations. Besides raising the question of where to place the change threshold, we argue that sustainability must be considered from three indissociable viewpoints: ecological, social, and economic. The issue is how to balance these criteria, knowing that this assessment will involve potential conflicts of representations and beliefs. To discuss these questions, we used the example of two heavily logged timber species in the Congo Basin, sapelli (Entandrophragma cylindricum) and ayous (Triplochiton scleroxylon). Using long-term data collected from permanent sample plots in Mbaiki, Central African Republic, we calibrated a matrix model and performed short- and long-term simulations to examine (1) the potential effect of repeated logging of the species under the current national regulation system and (2) the rules that should be set to reach long-term SY. Ensuring long-term SY would require a 22% and 53% decrease in the felling intensity of E. cylindricum and T. scleroxylon, respectively, at first cut, together with an increase in overall logging intensity targeted toward less-used species. Light-demanding E. cylindricum and T. scleroxylon require open forests to regenerate and grow. This new set of rules is probably economically unsustainable for the current African forest industry, and will not meet the ecological requirements encapsulated in the ATO/ITTO PCI. We thus stress the following points: (1) the importance of most exploited species for the current industry may change as wood processing capacities become more efficient and markets change, potentially providing conditions for harvesting a greater number of species; (2) floristic change is unavoidable in these conditions, but this problem should be addressed at a broad scale, notably by ensuring a network of protected areas; (3) as long as the timber industry remains one of the few sources of employment and revenues in marginalized countries, reducing SFM to SY of the most exploited species on every concession appears questionable."
  • Journal Article
    The Causes of Deterioration of Sundarban Mangrove Forest Ecosystem of Bangladesh: Conservation and Sustainable Management Issues
    (2010) Rahman, Mohammed M.; Rahman, M. Motiur; Islam, Kazi S.
    "The Sundarban forest, located in the southwest of Bangladesh, is one of the largest continuous blocks of mangrove forests in the world. This mangrove forest ecosystem in Bangladesh is now in captious position. Negative natural and anthropogenic impacts and overexploitation of natural resources have caused severe damage to the ecosystem. Growing human population with few alternative livelihood opportunities poses a serious threat to the mangrove forest. The rapidly expanding shrimp farming industry is a significant threat to the mangrove forests of Bangladesh. Due to illegal cutting, encroachment of forest areas and illegal poaching of wildlife, the mangrove forest is losing biodiversity in an alarming rate. This forest ecosystem also has become vulnerable to pollution, which may have changed the ecosystem's biogeochemistry. Further threats arise from global climate change, especially sea level rise. This study seeks to identify the root causes of deterioration of the Sundarban mangrove forest in Bangladesh. It also recommends the application of sustainable management strategies covering needs for an advanced silvicultural system, improvement of scientific research as well as conservation measures."
  • Journal Article
    Wildlife Conservation in Bornean Timber Concessions
    (2006) Meijaard, Erik; Sheil, Douglas; Nasi, Robert; Stanley, Scott A.
    "Based on an extensive review of the literature, and broad consultation with experts, we have assessed the sensitivity of Bornean vertebrates to the direct and indirect effects of timber harvest. Well-implemented selective logging has a relatively limited direct impact on wildlife populations: few species appear quite sensitive, some benefit, some decline. However, current management practices in Indonesian Borneo generally cause a decline in wildlife populations. Guidelines for sustainable forest management are primarily focused on trees, with few specific recommendations on how to sustainably manage wildlife populations in timber concessions. Based on our findings, we provide extensive wildlife management guidelines, pointing out the importance of maintaining understory vegetation and large trees for fruit, seed, dead wood, and tree hollow production, limiting canopy gaps, and reducing hunting and wildlife trade in concessions. In addition, we provide specific management advice on high priority species of Bornean vertebrates."
  • Journal Article
    Enrichment Planting in Secondary Forests: a Promising Clean Development Mechanism to Increase Terrestrial Carbon Sinks
    (2009) Paquette, Alain; Hawryshyn, Jessica; Vyta Senikas, Alexandra; Potvin, Catherine
    "With the increasing need to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations, afforestation and reforestation (A/R) projects are being implemented under the Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and under the voluntary carbon (C) market. The specific objective of A/R C projects is to enhance terrestrial sinks. They could also provide low-income communities in developing countries with a source of revenue, as well as a number of ecological and social services. However, feasibility issues have hindered implementation of A/R CDMs. We propose enrichment planting (EP) in old fallow using high-value native timber species as a land-use alternative and a small-scale C projects opportunity. We present EP in the context of ongoing work in a poor indigenous community in eastern Panama. We consider economic risks and advantages and concordance with existing modalities under the compliance market. The potential storage capacity for EP at the site of our study was ~113 Mg C ha-1, which is comparable to other land uses with high C storage, such as industrial teak plantations and primary forest. Because secondary forests show high aboveground biomass production, C projects using EP could harness large amounts of atmospheric C while improving diversity. Carbon projects using EP can also provide high levels of social, cultural, and ecological services by planting native tree species of traditional importance to local communities and preserving most of the secondary forest's ecological attributes. Therefore, EP planting could be considered as a way to promote synergies between two UN Conventions: climate change and biodiversity."
  • Journal Article
    Stable Forest Cover under Increasing Populations of Swidden Cultivators in Central Laos: The Roles of Intrinsic Culture and Extrinsic Wildlife Trade
    (2009) Robichaud, William G.; Sinclair, Anthony R. E.; Odarkor-Lanquaye, Naa; Klinkenberg, Brian
    "Swidden agriculture, or shifting cultivation, is variously viewed as a great environmental threat or a sustainable system of land use. In Laos, swidden has long been considered the primary driver of forest loss nationwide, but the assessment is based exclusively on studies from the north of country, where deforestation is most severe. National policies to control swidden have percolated down to management of one of the largest nature reserves in the region, Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area (NNT NPA) in the Annamite Mountains of central Laos. In NNT NPA, swiddens presumed unsustainability and deleterious impact on forest cover is an untested assumption. We tested it by methods of historical ecology, tracing the patterns of NNTs forest cover and human settlement over the past several decades. Principal sources of data were topographical maps dating to 1943, and Landsat images from 1976, 1989, and 2001."
  • Journal Article
    Finding 'Space' for Comanagement of Forests within the Neoliberal Paradigm: Rights, Strategies, and Tools for Asserting a Local Agenda
    (2008) Pinkerton, Evelyn; Heaslip, Robyn; Silver, Jennifer J.; Furman, Kira
    "As neoliberalism continues to influence environmental governance, it affects notions about the appropriate level of community involvement in resource management. Under more recent iterations, hybrid forms of governance are emphasized, including government-civil society partnerships and approaches geared towards harnessing the strengths of local communities. Here we explore the characteristics of different resource management rights, strategies, and tools through which communities can find political space to assert their own agendas within a neoliberalized policy environment. We examine the successful use of some of these approaches by communities during the initial development of community forests policy and practice in British Columbia, Canada. While we confirm the complex, contingent and case-specific nature of opportunities for comanagement created through neoliberal policy elements, we suggest that space does exist for community forest bodies to assert local values, goals and strategies, demonstrating the creativity, ingenuity and determination of communities to attain a real voice in management."